The European auto industry is in a dark place right now after the coronavirus forced the temporary closure of many factories. In China, however, life is returning to some sort of normality—at least for now before a potential next wave of new outbreaks—and the steps taken by Geely to get back on its feet give us a look at how that might be achieved for European automakers.
The New Year holiday’s end was postponed from 26 January to 10 February. Those who could work at home, did so. From 10 February, some of the 6,000 employees who work at Geely’s headquarters in Hangzhou, south east of Shanghai, were allowed back. A week later that number was increased again, and from 25 February the headquarters was fully staffed once more. All Geely vehicle factories are now running again.
So how did Geely achieve this? As a fascinating blog post describes it, by very careful monitoring of employee health and by obsessive sanitising. To get on site, employees have to pass through a tent in which a special camera has been set up to scan temperature. A nearby screen shows a body heat-map. Too hot equals potential fever, and anyone with a fever must be sent to isolation and medical teams alerted.
The precautions continue: once in the headquarters all employees are given new face masks every eight hours and are encouraged to keep their mouth and nose covered at all times. Large meetings are forbidden, and at lunch employees must stand a metre apart while queuing to use the microwave ovens.